about reynard the fox The taste of the duck and the satisfaction of having slighted the villagers one last time was, for a moment, worth the pain of biting off his paw when it got caught in their trap. But then this meant that they in return had slighted him. The fox who had not been clever enough licked at his wound, knowing the loss would not be enough to ruin his life. No he liked the villagers with spunk, the ones who fought back with cleverness. Traps were much more respectable than hounds being sent after him. "Not that some hounds don't deserve respect,"he might tell a hound if he ever needed to negotiate with one, "but it just doesn't tell me anything about the people. And if I wanted to play with hounds, I'd go to a hound village." Then while the dumb hound was confused, he would find a way to escape. It was nice to be defeated a little bit. He would have to come back some day, now that they were better at the game. He would come back one day with sharper senses and a keener wit. But first, there was this delicious duck. And then when that was finished, he was on his way to find someone to put his paw back. Fairies were nasty, and always playing tricks. He may have been a trickster but he steered clear of them. Saints liked to dunk him in water to baptize him, which wasn't the worst but he didn't prefer it. He liked witches, but all the real witches seemed to be good, and others just wanted to trick him into doing their chores, or steal bits of fur for potions. It's all well and fun to get tricked he thought, but not into doing labor for someone. He was of course, entirely ignoring all the times he had done that to other creatures. He wasn't certain who he would go to to grow his paw back, but he didn't let that bother him. He did know where he was going first. Long ago he had earned the respect of a farmer and his cattle for saving a calf from a wolf. Really saving the calf had just been a side product of defeating the wolf, but he'd since befriended that calf. And when she'd grown up and decided she was far too important to stay in that farm, he'd still remained friends with her. He sweet-talked an aligator into taking him across the river, and ran before it could realize he would never make good on his promises. He strollled along through he woods. His right leg raised slightly because of the missing paw, but his other paws quickly remembering how to walk with just three of them, and he was still rather nimble. Nimble enough to pull jeering faces at the birds and laugh himself silly at their startled cries. There was something new in the woods, something big and loud he hadn't seen before. A new village of sorts, but with far more children running around than he was used to seeing. And the houses didn't look anything like he'd seen before. It made him dreadfully curious so he ran nimbly into the village, dodging clumsy feet and people throwing slimy seaweed at each other. Oh this was actually going to be very entertaining. There was a stone castle towering over the rest of the village. Reynard hadn't been near a castle in some time, but he recalled that sometimes kings liked to keep wizards as pets. And a wizard could certainly put his paw back. So maybe this detour would not only provide entertainment, but perhaps magic quicker than he'd expected it. So he went over to the palace and he hid himself in a deep pot filled with flowers. Then he waited for someone to open the door. There was a little knocking sound on the pot and a delicious smell. Reynard wasn't one to be tricked--except for a fgew rare instances! so he didn't get up. "Dude, everyone can see you.Your glowing red like a fire truck." Reynard drew himself up in indignation. "I beg your pardon?!" "Wait you can talk?!" "Of course I can talk, who are you?" "I'm a writer. we're all writers." reynard rolled his eyes. "oh joy. people who invent clever people because they can't just be clever." "I think you have to be pretty clever to write." the kid paused. "Hey wait a minute. I know you, that picture book my grandma gave me. Reynard the fox?" he gave her a dashing bow. and when she laughed and bowed back, he jumped over her head. "Alright writers, if you're so clever I have a challenge for you. Write my paw back into existance." "Can we do that?" someone called. "I don't know. isn't writing the most powerful thing in the world?" reynard asked smugly. "come on, hurry up and get trying. I'm sure you can do it."
march 13 time travel daily 1942 words: spelunker, harrumph, jillion, tourist trap, kicky The spelunker showed her wife again exactly which tunnels she would be taking in the cave system. "And right here this bit of the cave leads out into these woods-" she grabbed another map. "Right here. And then these woods attach to this park and it's just a short walk. So if I don't meet you right here at this park by the visitor center on Sunday, call in rescue teams. Call in a jillion rescue teams cause it'll take something crazy to get me turned around in a cave." "You know, sometimes I think you're too confident. Remember last time you wanted to take less batteries for your headlamps." the spelunker kissed her wife. "And lucklily you knew it was a bad idea, even though you never go in caves with me. Thank you." Her wife harrumphed a little. "Don't just sweet talk me. I need you to be careful. This is a new cave. Just because you know other caves well, doesn't mean you know this cave." She pointed to the map of the cave again. "tell me about your journey in more detail. Tell me about the depths, and all the risks, and we'll make sure you're prepared for anything that could happen. Early the next morning, she checked her backpack for the hundredth time, checked for her map, and her copy of the map in case the first one got damaged, even though there was already a protective covering on it. She tied the laces of her boots and pulled her gloves up over her caving suit. Then she flicked on her first headlamp, and slid down into the entrance. She was able to stand almost immediately, though even with her short stature she was still near the fang-like stalacties. These always made her feel like she was being smiled at so she smiled back. She honestly didn't understand people who were creeped out by caves. She thought they were beautiful. Though, the sight of bats hidden in the shadows quickly reminded her to watch out for guano, and she looked back down so she wouldn't be disturbing them with her light. She consulted her map again for the next tunnel and shone her light in. It was tight at first and she had to compress her backpack, but it opened enough soon that she had several inches of space. By the time she'd been there for thirteen hours, stopping a few times to eat, she was feeling pretty annoyed. Now it was true, this cave was exactly the way other spelunkers had described in terms of features and the shapes and lengths of tunnels. But there was just a magic missing. If she hadn't been certain, she might have called this cave man-made. Sure she had promised her wife she would be safe, but caving wasn't any fun if she was just safe. she needed something more kicky. So instead of ignoring her tunnel to her right she took it. There was a horrible squeezing for what felt like several minutes, but a blessed relief when she could breathe again. She smiled a little in satisfaction. True she'd seen this tunnel on the map as well so it wasn't true exploration, but it was a step closer. The ceiling of the cave got lower and she had to crawl but honestly it was just invigorating. Then she saw a beautiful glowing pink light and she followed it into a cave cathedral. The walls dotted with something pink by bio luminiscent fungi or something. "Oh hello," she said to the person she saw inside staring up at the fungi. they didn't respond and when hse got closer she saw they were frozen in place, the stone of their cave melding with their flesh. The spelunker took a step back and screamed. Still not realizing just how bad of a tourist trap she had ended up in. The bacteria in the wall sensed the newcomer and they began to move toward her. While the man who was hidden in the crannies kept sending out those psychological signals that you were bored and wanted to go down this tunnel, and forget all the warnings you might have seen on the map.
